CW's Windmill on the Move this Summer

By Amber Lester Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg have no doubt whipped out their cameras to take snapshots of Robertson’s windmill, located in the kitchen garden of the former Peyton Randolph house.

Now, new pictures will line visitors’ photo albums, as the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation plans to move the 53-year-old structure to the Palace Farms. There, the windmill will sit directly across the pedestrian bridge from the Visitor Center and near the Great Hopes Plantation.  In a press release, CW said the building will “contribute to the landscape of rural life in the 18th century and serve as a visual beacon drawing guests across the bridge and into their 18th-century experience.”

CW will consult with the city to review the plan and obtain approval to move the windmill this summer and complete necessary repairs by 2011. The windmill’s reassembly following the move is expected to take 12-18 months, due to the preparation and curing time needed for large wooden elements, such as the wind beam.

Once the windmill is reassembled, it will complete the 1770s scene at Peyton Randolph’s “urban plantation.” A windmill existed at Randolph’s farm in the early 18th century, but evidence suggests the future speaker of the House of Burgesses removed all existing structures when he expanded his home site in the 1750s. The exact location of the original mill is unknown.

Robertson’s windmill, first constructed in 1957, is a reproduction of one owned by William Robertson, a prominent lawyer in Colonial Williamsburg. Historians believe his windmill was at the corner of North England and Scotland Streets. It was believed to be a post mill, meaning a house-like structure sat on a post of timbers. Balanced on the post, the house could be positioned to point the arms into the wind. Robertson likely hired a millwright to run a custom mill that ground grain.

At a breakfast for community leaders Tuesday morning, CW President Colin Campbell said the mill’s new location will become a “visual beacon” for the living museum. “It will make a wonderful first image as visitors walk across the bridge and begin to enter the Historic Area,” he said.